Although flat out working on his latest project, he seems relaxed and reflective as we sit and chat on the banks of the Todd River.

"I think it's kind of perfect because I came up here the day after the election and it felt like a good time to be getting out of the eastern seaboard," he says.

"It's a different town, Alice, and I like that about it...I like being here."

The founding member of Not Drowning Waving and My Friend the Chocolate Cake will launch his fourth solo album, Wake, in Alice Springs this weekend - with a Darwin gig to follow.

Somehow, he's managing to squeeze this in while working on an ambitious musical theatre production, part of next month's Mbantua Festival in the Centre.

'Bungalow Song' tackles the experiences of kids growing up in an Alice Springs institution during the 1930's and 1940's - many were Stolen Generation, and many have traumatic stories to tell.

Bridie's imprint will be significant - he's composing songs, involved in auditions and rehearsing a cast of mostly child performers.

In short, it's his job to bring the words from direct testimonials to life musically - no small challenge given the subject matter.

"You skirt around the edges a bit...you don't sort of charge in like a bull at a gate for something as important as this," he says.

"It helps having Rachel (Perkins) and other people here who have family [who have gone through it] or who have gone through it themselves."

The show will move through various locations at the former site of the Bungalow, the Old Telegraph Station, now a popular tourist destination.

"One of the guys who was out there says it looks pretty kind of flash now but when you lived there it was awful," says David

"Some phenomenal stories have come out."

The Mbantua Festival is co-artistic directed by Rachel Perkins and Nigel Jameson, the same creative team Bridie worked with over a decade ago when he was music director of the Yeperenye Festival, an Indigenous cultural event on which Mbantua is modelled.

"It involved a whole lot of mob coming in and singing and dancing during the day, big concert at night, with all sorts of bands," he says.

Another project based in Alice Springs, an opera based on the story of anthropologist Ted Strehlow, brought David alongside Warren H Williams and local rock band Nokturnl (the project didn't eventuate.)

But while it's clear that David relishes opportunities to collaborate on projects like these, it's clear his heart is fixed on his solo work.

Of his fourth album, Wake, David says the process was about coming full circle.

'Wake' in some ways was a record where I went back to how I started in music, which is writing music on a crappy upright piano late at night in a room."

"I needed to concentrate on doing what I do...the solo career, singing and writing songs."

Much of Bridie's work has addressed political issues across the years and this album includes a number of tracks referencing the ongoing asylum seeker debate in Australia.

"I thought Australia should be better than that," he says, of the stance that both political parties took on the issue during the recent federal election.

"Compared to any other first world nation we take a minimal amount of refugees, we live in such a massive land mass, with such a small population...music needs to say things about issues like this, that's what rock and roll was always supposed to do..."

Along with material from the new album, Territory audiences can look forward to some old favourites and a sneak preview of work from The Bungalow.

David Bridie will play at Monte's, Alice Springs from 7pm, Sunday, September 22 (tickets at the door) and at the Darwin Railway Club, from 6pm on Sunday September 29th.